As the Taliban makes gains to re-take over Afghanistan, questions loom over whether this group resembles the Taliban of 20 years ago. Anand Gopal, author of the book "No Good Men Among the Living: American, the Taliban, and the War Through Afghan Eyes,” joins American Voices with Alicia Menendez with guest host Anand Giridharadas to discuss the current reiteration of the Taliban and what impact its takeover may have on Afghans, and particularly women and girls.
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A Deeper Look At Who The Taliban Is 20 Years Later
This is explains a lot.
It wasn’t the Taliban advance that was the issue, it was the collapse of Afghan leadership and the unwillingness of US trained troops to fight that was the surprise. And, also this is why our presence in Afghanistan needed to end.
Then how come US presence in south korea hasn’t ended..??
Don’t tell me americans are surprised or even shocked by this unpreparedness… There’s clearly been a huge problem in the training and prepping the local govt and armed forces for the absence of US troops. People in the field must’ve known how much progress they made with the afghan people for taking back their country…
afghanistan ain’t that big…the population ain’t that many.
It’s also possible that those born fighters and those who’re just good at war..most of them have gone to sign up with the talibans..which left the non-combatant citizens with the legit govt.
That explains a lot of why there’s not much fighting against the talibs once the americans leaving.
@T H Clueless on the facts much?? Chancellor Cheney and Rummy pulled the forces out of Afghanistan (And let Bin Ladin walk) so they could mount their illegal invasion of Iraq for its oil.
@T H : that’s just it… we went too iraq instead !! AMERICA attacked and murdered the reigning president and his sons, when they KNEW BIN LADEN WAS IN AFGHANISTAN THE WHOLE TIME.
PLUS SAUDI ARABIA TOO !! look at what nationality the 911 terrorists were .
Mainly SAUDI ARABIAN , as well as BIN LADEN himself . Anyway….
Let them fight their OWN civil war..
Like we did. But 300 thousand Afghan troops RAN INSTEAD, RIGHT BEHIND THEIR PRESIDENT !!! NO MORE AMERICAN BLOOD AND BONES FOR THIS WORTHLESS COWARDLY COUNTRY !!
@Ayn Rand : TROLL BOT !!! SHUT UP!!
@Kelly Empson Iraq was a meaningless war. Also an illegal one. Going into Afghanistan wasn’t. What’s meaningless is Afghani men. 300,000 active military + an Air Force? That’s a larger military than France Germany United Kingdom Canada Australia all the Nato Troops that went in an Kicked Taliban and Al-qaeda butts for over a decade.
In 2009 there were only 64,000 allied troops in Afghanistan and they had control of the country. 29,000 of which where American. And there were 200,000 Taliban fighters. Afghan security fighters outnumbered them and had superior fire power. And they ran away without even firing a shot.
They didn’t care about their women children or country. Why should anyone else care.
When the ”New Congress” of senators all carry AK-47’s it’s not a good sign.
First order of new Afghan Parliament, Who gets a child bride and who gets executed in the street. Second order of business, Head-scarfs, (very important). Third order, who gets what province to terrorize. They need only one tyrannical dictator and I count about twenty in the Presidential room.
that is good. Maybe they like guns and will write a second amendment and constitution.
Why does this look like an exact parallel to the January 6th event, except the Taliban actually succeeded lol
Obviously there are huge socio/geo/politico/cultural differences. But the parallel still came to mind
@TheFlutecart sad but true
When you go to war the only outcome would anilation that’s the only way to be sure anything short of that would be unacceptable
A deeper look…..in 5 min. How American.
“No Good Men Among The Living”. Yes this is true. Which is why I stay away from them.
they used the same exact government model in Iraq!! so probably we will see the same thing in few months in the US embassy in Baghdad
I, personally, would very much like to see this Anand Gopal speak on the airwaves as much as possible. A voice of deep insight and uncluttered reasoning. Thank you, sir.
The only winners in this 20 year war are the military industrial complex
President Eisenhower warned our nation about the MIC (military industrial complex) FIFTY YEARS AGO, yet their GREED still directs US foreign policy to this day.
Al-Qaeda attacked us. We responded by going to war with Afghanistan when we should have been dealing with Saudi Arabia.
The USA should have left Afghanistan to the Afghanis back in 2011 after we got Osama Bin Laden.
President Biden has done the right thing by withdrawing our troops. Those in power who are complaining don’t care about our troops, they only care about their MIC donors.
Muslims, Christians, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, etc. are all intoxicated by their beliefs to a level that fuels in the hate we see today which could ultimately reduce civil society to rubble.
Our Founding Fathers hoped that we could keep our democracy. I hope we can.
The Democrats are grifting off of the Military Industrial Complex campaign donations. Raytheon gave over 1 million to Adam Schiff’s campaign. Meanwhile, Joe Biden just allowed the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan after we lost over 2,300 troops in over 20 years of combat there. He just blundered 20 years of your tax dollars on his dementia.
@Regulatory Affairs trump negotiated the pull out with the taliban and wanted to invite the taliban to camp David. Biden just followed through with what trump agreed to with the taliban. I could be there another 20 years and the end result will still be the same
Has everyone forgotten what happened about 25 years ago? Russia went into Afghanistan and after being there for years they finally left! WHY? Because they couldn’t do anything with the people there! The U.S. had no business being there and it all turned out the same AGAIN! After all the years of training and the best equipment, the Afghanistan soldiers simply would not fight and simply walked off! That is their fault, not ours! Nevermind that the Afghan soldiers grossly outnumbered the taliban 300,000 to 75,000, so why did they just walk off?
Maybe their sick of killing other local citizens for whichever bully army wants control of the opium trade.
China did that in the 1800s, Russia and China took turns for a while… Then America does occupied them.
What all three superpowers did was execute anyone they felt like killing, making freedom fighters out of citizens who lost family members.
I’m praying all of them leave them alone for a few centuries so they can actually improve their lands.
A corrupt administration was going to bring salvation to a country in distress
What did you think would happen?
Interesting to see the Taliban sitting in government offices. Much better behaved than their American counterparts of Jan. 6 🙂
‘Deep’ – 5 minutes lol. Thanks capitalist TV.
I’m glad they interviewed someone who has a more realistic perspective of the happenings in Afghanistan. Gopal has spoken with them and seen first hand the actual state of the situation. I’m sick and tired of these media seeking sensationalist who have no real knowledge, insight, or factual information but rather promote propaganda that suits their own narrative. Of course there are many fleeing the country right now because what better excuse is their for fleeing than when there is chaos and scare mongering. Everyone seems to know one way or another what is better for the Afghans rather than the Afghani people themselves.
The America Media is owned by the same folk that sponsored the Government’s actions to INVADE Afghanistan and all for profit! Don’t Fall for any of their “BREAKING NEWS” There Must be limits on how much money one individual can amass if we all truley want a better world.
@Delores Vickers yes. I completely agree.
So glad to see Anand Ghiridaradas elevated to a host position on MSNBC !! Love his books and his prior interviews
It was predictable as the morning sunrise.
Afghanistan is (and never was) worth the bones of a single American soldier (Apologies to Otto Von Bismark).
Simply blood and treasure down a rat-hole.
Let’s start protecting America from our own home grown terrorist groups that attacked the US Capital on January 6. Can American forces even accomplish that? Well January 6 we sure DID NOT.
Communist China Loves U.
One of the best interview I came across covering the Afghanistan 🇦🇫 situation
There are many similarities between today’s GOP and the Taliban.